He wishes for the cloths of heaven

William Butler Yeats

 Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
 Enwrought with golden and silver light,
 The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
 Of night and light and the half-light,
 I would spread the cloths under your feet:
 But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
 I have spread my dreams under your feet;
 Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.

Commentary

I simply love this verse…I cannot think of any other lines that better express my deepest thoughts about the question one so often searches for the answers to: ‘what is love?’

I first came across these lines in a book called “The Charmed Circle”, when I was all of 14 years old… To my young and (as yet) unimpressioned mind, it spoke of a love so deep, so earnest and so ‘giving’ that it stayed with me through the years in the quiet recesses of my mind, echoing gentle reminders in soft undertones… “Tread softly because you tread on my dreams”…

The years may have flown by since then and my impressions of love washed in the many colours of experience… but the spirit of this verse remains.

— Tina


The Wondering Minstrels, poem #597 · 4 November 2000

Guest poem submitted by Tina George

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